These online B2B Marketplaces have resolved things once & for all for businesses that struggled with procurement, payments, & revenue challenges! Let’s find out!
What are B2B Marketplaces?
According to Statista, Asia Pacific is leading the e-commerce marketplace way with a market share of almost 80%, leaving North America and Europe far behind. Amazon and Alibaba are the two most prominent players on the market.
Kirana Commerce B2B Marketplaces
Jumbotail
These platforms deal with providing end-to-end solutions to empower the Kirana sector in the country.
Jumbotail is a business-to-business e-commerce marketplace for wholesale & food grocery. It caters to the growing yet untapped Kirana sector in India, 12-13 million to be exact, and provides a full-stack solution that includes:
- Payments solutions
- Working capital credit(by tying up with financial institutions)
- Tech-driven supply chain & logistics
- Hassle-free storefront delivery
Jumbotail makes it possible for convenience stores to tap into the retail-as-a-service model with a point of sales(PoS) fully integrated with its supply chain & fintech!
Further, the platform provides high-quality products to Kirana store owners by providing sourcing & quality control services and has tied up with more than 20,000 mom & pop stores and is all set to revolutionize the space.
Elasticrun
Elasticrun provides a common place where businesses tap & reach the 10 million mom & pop stores, commonly known as Kirana stores, and, in turn, catalyzes their growth.
Elasticrun’s Kirana commerce platform connects these stores to businesses pan India, unlocking a whopping $600 billion worth opportunity. This is through:
- Crowdsourced logistics: Logistics network driven by partners
- Store aggregation: To lower servicing demands of each store
- Brand aggregation: For cost effective shared economy logistics
The core products of Elasticrun include:
- FMCG: To connect FMCG brands directly with kirana stores in rural India
- e-commerce: To enable e-commerce access to kirana stores
- Credit: To facilitate credit for rural stores from financial Institutions
- Data Analytics: Identify & overcome data-blindspots in multiple industries
Food & Commodity B2B Marketplaces
These platforms deal with providing a roof for wholesalers, retailers, or businesses to procure consumable articles of diverse kinds. Let’s take a look at the top & upcoming players here.
Ninjacart
Ninjacart is one of the top B2B marketplaces in India for the fresh produce supply chain. The platform sources fresh produce directly from farmers and sells it to businesses. Consequently, this helps farmers with better revenue and retailers with higher quality products, without delays.
Ninjacart procures food articles from farmers, dispatches it to collection & fulfillment centers, manages the distribution based on the demand & orders, and does doorstep deliveries for retailers. All within 12 hours, backed by tech!
This business-to-business marketplace promises benefits for all the three parties involved in the ecosystem- farmers, retailers, and end consumers as you can see in the image above. Alongside, it also solves the core problems faced by farmers & retailers at a go!
- Farmers: Price risk, lack of solid data about demand, distribution inefficiency, & delayed payments.
- Retailers: Higher operational costs, low quality & unhygienic produce, price volatility, and procurement hassle.
DeHaat
DeHaat is an agri-tech B2B marketplace that focuses on empowering farmers with full-stack agricultural services. Farmers get access to quality material inputs, a chance to connect with institutional buyers for selling their produce, and also receive scientific farming advice for better yields.
With this marketplace, farmers can get 50% higher income on their produce and boost farm productivity by 20%. Moreover, it also offers soil-testing services via their testing labs and presents health cards after tests.
Not just farmers, DeHaat also focuses on micro-entrepreneurs and institutional buyers. With local franchise stores called DeHaat centers, micro-entrepreneurs can thrive at the grass-root level. On the other hand, for corporate customers, DeHaat’s online portal allows tracking transactions, perusing commodity procurement pipelines, and ordering online.
Around October 2021, DeHaat raised $115 million in funding, the largest agritech round in India.
Farmley
Farmley is a tech-driven wholesale platform that facilitates procurement of non-perishable food items such as dry fruits, nuts & seeds, specialty grains, exotic fruits & berries, healthy snacks, and more.
This B2B platform is a marketplace that connects suppliers and wholesale consumers by sourcing agri commodities straight from the source. Consequently, it makes it possible for Farmley to bring these food products to end consumers like us at highly competitive prices.
The crucial goals and vision of Farmley include:
- Sourcing high quality, non-perishable food products that are free from adulteration
- Empower the farmer community by creating better opportunities for margin & profit by eliminating middlemen
On the supplier side, this business-to-business marketplace has a sturdy pool of handpicked suppliers while on the customer side, there are businesses & wholesalers of all sizes. Getting started with Farmley is super simple.
e-Commerce B2B Marketplaces
These marketplaces deal with general e-commerce products.
Udaan
In 2016, 3 ex-Flipkart employees decided to build something with the vision to “transform the way trade is done in India leveraging technology.” Initially, the platform focused on logistics for small businesses owners in the electronics & apparel industry.
However, seeing the traction the platform received, Udaan soon started envisioning building a full-stack e-commerce marketplace for SMBs in the country.
In a matter of two years, Udaan entered the unicorn club, becoming one of the fastest companies to do so, and with the latest funding news, it could be worth US$4.5 billion to US$5 billion.
Through its e-commerce business-to-business platform, Udaan is solving the perennial problems related to trade in India using technology. It has set foot in multiple categories such as lifestyle, electronics, pharma, FMCG, home & kitchen, staples, hardware & sanitaryware, toys, and more!
How can SMBs start trading on Udaan? A business owner:
- Creates an account on the platform
- Completes KYC for their shops using GSTIN and Shop & Establishment Licence.
- Starts purchases for their shops from retailers & brands at great wholesale prices.
- Avails doorstep delivery, enjoy hassle-free returns, and access credit facility upto ₹5 Lakhs.
According to Udaan, the platform has over 3 million users, 25,0000-30,000 sellers across 900+ cities, and operates across 12,000 pin codes in the country. With a monthly transaction volume of over 4.5 million, the platform serves 1.7 million retailers, chemists, Kirana shops, HoReCa, farmers.
Bizongo
Bizongo is India’s largest B2B e-commerce & supply chain marketplace for made-to-order goods. The platform has a diverse catalog of products ranging from apparel, carry bags, material handling equipment, paper-based products, cartons, bulk packaging, and more!
Bizongo offers solutions for supply chain management and automation via Real-time Analytics & Tracking and digitized documentation. Not just that, businesses can also leverage efficient inventory management and digitized distribution services with Bizongo. In addition, it also provides Digital Vendor Management to help businesses with easy communication and digital product catalogs.
This B2B marketplace has 1500+ manufacturers nationwide with 200+ product categories, have a total monthly capacity of 2m+ tonnes, and has delivered over 860m orders.
When we had a chat with the Bizongo team, here’s what Ankit, the Co-founder says.
“At Bizongo we make it seamless for our enterprise customers to digitize their vendor base and automate their supply chain through our platform. Today in India most manufacturers are small and fragmented with most of their capital stuck in working capital cycles. Bizongo’s supply chain financing platform makes it super easy for these manufacturers to avail finance in a digital-first way with minimal documentation and fast disbursals. Partnership with Decentro enables us to automate the entire pipeline of payments and credit checks to build a digital-first & fast experience for both our customers and manufacturers”Ankit Tomar, Co-founder, Bizongo
IndiaMart
IndiaMart is one of India’s largest marketplaces that facilitates e-commerce suppliers and buyers to transact easily and benefit mutually. Founded in 1999, this B2B marketplace has the mission ‘to make doing business easy.’
For buyers, IndiaMart offers payment protection programs to buyers, in addition to the convenience of finding quality products and ease of finding suppliers. On the other hand, for suppliers, enhanced business visibility & brand credibility, lead management system, and instant payment solution.
IndiaMart has 138 Million+ Buyers, 6.7 Million+ Suppliers, 76 Million+ Products & Services, and claims to have a market share of 60%.
GoMechanic
GoMechanic is a network of tech-driven car service centers that provides after-sales support and spare part services for consumers.
Some of the key services offered by GoMechanic include:
- Periodic services
- Denting & painting
- Batteries
- Car Spa & Cleaning
- Insurance claims
- Tire & wheel care
- Miles membership
And, more!
GoMechanic’s marketplace for car workshop owners helps them acquire customers easily, manage inventory seamlessly, and earn. So far, this B2B marketplace has onboarded 500+ partners and paid out more than ₹200 crore in 2019, and delivers more than 10,000 services monthly.
Pharma & Hospitality Centric B2B Marketplaces
In this section, we’ll take a look at the marketplaces that deal with pharmaceutical products/services along with the platforms catering to the hospitality industry.
Retailio
Retalio is one of India’s fastest-growing B2B marketplaces focusing on pharmaceuticals. It provides a platform that brings together pharma retailers, distributors & manufacturers under a single roof for easy & quick purchases & sales.
Retalio offers two key products to customers:
- Order Management
- Integrated Payments
While Order Management helps businesses to handle their orders efficiently via cent percent cashless processes, safe & secure transactions, and uninterrupted support, Integrated Payments enables secure B2C and B2B payments and collection systems. Further, the payments service comes with real-time updates on transactions, option to pay based on invoices, reminders & schedulers.
This B2B pharma marketplace has a presence in 100+ cities across India and has a strong network of 1000+ healthcare & pharma companies, 3000+ pharmaceutical distributors, and over one lakh hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes.
When we spoke to the Retailio team, here’s what we heard from Rohit, Head – FinTech.
We at Fination are continuously looking to innovate credit and other FinTech offerings for our ecosystem partners – whether B2B or B2C. During this pandemic period, people have spoken about all sectors and the impact caused by the lockdown. However, not much has been spoken about pharmacies and their impact during the continuous lockdowns. We are today looking to extensively provide this base support and be their partners in their next phase of growth.
On-boarding ease, innovative underwriting, and flexibility in structures is our primary goal and we continuously look to partner with similar-minded organizations to help build the next big Health Care Financing platform in India.Rohit Anand, Head – FinTech, Retailio
Saveo
Saveo is an e-commerce pharma marketplace for businesses that facilitates the procurement of medicines for pharmacies across the country. The marketplace brings together manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies to supply Allopathy, Generics, Surgical, Ayurvedic, Speciality medicines.
In January 2021, Saveo raised $4M in funding and plans to further reinforce its vision to bring uniformity in margin & service in the pharma sector and help Indian pharmacies digitize their businesses.
Horeca Stop
Horeca Stop is a B2B marketplace that is a one-stop solution for the hospitality industry. The omnichannel platform procures and provides products & services for hotel, restaurant, and catering services firms.
Horeca Stop provides a myriad of products such as crockeries, cutleries, glassware, packaging materials, room amenities, uniforms, in addition to services such as housekeeping and disinfection.
B2B Marketplaces for Raw Materials, Manufacturing, Construction Supply Chain
Here we’ll talk about the various players who tap into the supply chain cycle of manufacturing materials, chemicals, and a lot more! Call it a general categorization sorts, if you may!
ChemX
As the name suggests, this B2B marketplace focuses on facilitating the purchase and sales of chemical products.
ChemX aims to disrupt the chemical supply chain by providing a one-stop solution to procure, sell, and trade fine, commodity, and specialty chemicals. The platform facilitates auctions to ensure competitive & fair pricing for both buyers and sellers. For sellers, ChemX opens up a network of verified suppliers who are credit-worthy and come with genuine requirements.
It also helps suppliers Live bidding, order tracking, and payment notifications making the entire cycle easier, and also to book future contracts with lock-in prices to avoid price volatility.
When we had a chat with the founder of ChemX, Siddharth, here’s what he says.
Infra.Market
Infra.Market is a B2B marketplace for construction materials. The platform brings contractors, designers, engineers, materials & component manufacturers together to solve the traditional challenges existing in the construction ecosystem using technology.
In addition to simplified B2B payments via bank transfers, Infra.Market also provides credit options to customers via Buy Now Pay Later to help them have uninterrupted operations, buy items in bulk, and get loans easily. Some of the products this marketplace provides are:
- Ready Mix Concrete
- Flyash
- Construction Chemicals
- Aggregate
- Cement
Infra.Market has so far enabled 304 clients and 289 manufacturers with 742 projects across 4 countries with over 946 daily deliveries.
NowPurchase
NowPurchase is a B2B marketplace that facilitates smart procurement for foundries and aims to disrupt India’s 140B$ worth metal manufacturing industry.
The platform comes with solutions that help foundries to optimize furnace selection charge mix, real-time price, availability & delivery notifications, and reliable test certificates for all products, among others.
The core products of NowPurchase include:
- Ferro Alloys
- Virgin Metals
- Ferrous scraps
- Power tools
- Refractories
- Foundry essentials
The marketplace also provides credit facilities to customers to manage working capital requirements.
OfBusiness
OfBusiness is a tech-powered B2B marketplace that enables businesses in the manufacturing & infrastructure sectors to procure raw materials and provide credit facilities. In particular, it focuses on the SME sector and envisions improving the supply chain cycle in it.
This business-to-business marketplace brings together buyers & suppliers on a common platform and removes the gap between supply & demand for manufacturing goods. Ofbusiness has 7,00,000+ registered SMEe, operates across more than 24 states in India, and also has a global footprint in over 35+ countries,
Further, this marketplace also provides cash-flow-based financing to SMEs for purchasing raw materials via its NBFC ‘Oxyzo Financial Services.’
Vendor Infra
Vendor Infra is a B2B digital platform that caters to infrastructure vendors & suppliers and helps them find an alternative, cost-effective medium to find large-scale projects in different sectors.
Vendor Infra is a global name in the infrastructure & construction industry and aims to bring under a single digital roof all relevant stakeholders such as infrastructure companies, contractors, and suppliers.
With Vendor Infra, you can:
- Search for trusted vendors
- Find opportunities with project owners
- Get quotes
- Collect detailed data on the industry with sector intelligence
The marketplace has a database of over 18511 vendors & companies with more than a hundred requested proposals.
Textile & Fashion/Apparel Centric B2B Marketplaces
These platforms bring together wholesalers, retailers, or businesses in the fashion sector.
Fibre2Fashion
Fibre2Fashion is a marketplace where businesses can source textile & apparel products and provide marketing assistance for these. The platform offers an arena for suppliers, manufacturers, exporters, importers, and trade agents to facilitate the purchase & sale of textile, apparel, and fashion products.
On Fibre2Fashion, businesses can utilize the Make to Order (MTO) and Wholesale (Ready-to-sell Goods) models.
MTO:
- List your business as a seller/buyer
- Post products & offers
- Connect with qualified & verified suppliers & buyers
- Submit RFQs, request samples,
- Place orders
Wholesale
- List your ready-to-sell products & get deals
- Buy branded products on wholesale prices
- Pay through secure payment gateways
Fashinza
Fashinza is a B2B marketplace that connects fashion brands with qualified manufacturers and helps businesses manage all things from design to delivery.
This online marketplace has tied up 500+ brands, delivered 4,914,636 products, belonging to 5,142 styles, and envisions to resolve all the hassles relating to the supply chain in the fashion industry. The platform takes care of these by providing an end-to-end solution that involves:
- Fabric & Design
- Costing & Sampling
- Production
- Transparency & Quality Check
- Quick, Safe Delivery
Not just that, this B2B marketplace also focuses on sustainable fashion by helping brands find verified ethical manufacturers that come with sustainability tags & certificates.
Bijnis
Bijnis is a B2B e-commerce marketplace that connects manufacturers, retailers, component suppliers, and buyers, especially in the footwear sector. The platform aims to empower the unorganized manufacturing sector by digitizing factories.
Bijnis enables factory owners to grow & scale by leveraging technology and making factories ‘smart’ and helps buyers by directly sourcing from factors removing friction in the purchase cycle.
Factory owners can set up a profile instantly, and share it with verified buyers to get started with sales. In the future, Bijnis is also planning to provide credit facilities to customers, exporting assistance, and tools for optimizing operations such as inventory, cash flow, production, and wages.
